Jindal requests fisheries disaster status after Isaac

Gov. Bobby Jindal is asking federal officials to declare a fisheries disaster from last year’s Hurricane Isaac.Isaac struck the Louisiana coast on Aug. 28, making landfall first at the mouth of the Mississippi River and again at Port Fourchon.The storm’s winds and flooding damaged fishing communities and businesses and also stirred up oil from the 2010 BP spill, bringing gobs of tar balls into area beaches.“This will allow our fishermen, fishing communities and biologic resources to be restored,” reads Jindal’s letter to Acting Secretary of Commerce Rebecca Blank.Louisiana boasts one of the nation’s strongest fisheries. In 2011, the state produced 1.5 billion pounds of seafood with a dollar value of $340 million, according to Jindal’s administration. That is second only to Alaska.“By immediately making funds available, our fishermen can return to commerce and supply our nation with U.S.-caught shrimp, crab, oysters and finfish,” Jindal’s letter states.A fisheries disaster occurs when an act of nature or man results in severe damage to the fishery and its infrastructure, causing those working in the fishery to suffer “severe economic hardship,” according to the National Marine Fisheries Service.Aid packages range from Small Business Administration loans to federal grants.“Only the governor can request a fisheries disaster declaration,” said Randy Pausina, Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries assistant secretary. “It’s the first step in the protocol to request funds from Congress.”Pausina said the storm caused problems such as putting fishing docks and ports out of commission, knocking out utilities that prevented fishermen from getting back to work and damaging equipment in hard-hit communities.The Department of Wildlife and Fisheries tracked recreational and commercial fishermen to determine preliminary damages, he added.Pausina said new rules are in place that make it too soon to predict what specific forms of aid the state could receive or how much Louisiana could get. It’s also too soon to know when it might be available.“That’s at the pleasure of Congress,” Pausina said. “I am not sure right now how we would demonstrate a loss. And there are questions about whether the aid might come back with strings attached to it.”Such strings could include matching grants or similar measures.Fisheries failures have been declared 51 times since 1994, most recently in New York and New Jersey because of Hurricane Sandy.The last such declaration for Louisiana was in 2010 during the Gulf oil spill.After repeated disasters and with other pressures like imported seafood, the aid is needed, fishermen said.“If we can get some kind of aid or subsidy it will help,” said Montegut shrimper Lance Nacio, who sits on Louisiana’s Shrimp Task Force. “It’s been hard for so many reasons, but we have never stopped fishing. In Louisiana we have this tremendous resource, and we believe in it. We want to keep trying to utilize it as much as we can.”

Nikki Buskey can be reached at 857-2205 or nicole.buskey@houmatoday.com.

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